1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless LAN device that performs wireless communication in a wireless network.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, wireless LANs (Local Area Network) have been prevailing. Because the wireless LAN allows communication only within a radio wave arrival area of a wireless LAN client, the following technique has been developed. If communication over a broad area exceeding a radio wave arrival range of a wireless LAN client is performed, a plurality of wireless LAN devices each having functions of access point and station are provided and a packet is relayed among the plurality of wireless LAN devices. Such a technique is known as a WDS (Wireless Distribution System) (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-270999).
In communication between a wireless LAN device and a wireless LAN client, whether each of them is to function as an access point or a station is automatically determined. However, in the WDS, in communication between wireless LAN devices, whether each of them is to function as an access point or a station is not automatically determined. Therefore, if an asymmetric protocol which indicates different processing contents between an access point and a station is to be performed, an access point-station relationship between wireless LAN devices needs to be set in advance for convenience sake. Examples of such an asymmetric protocol are protocols used in processing of automatically setting wireless connection information for a network device which is performed by using an AOSS (AirStation One-Touch Secure System, trademark of BUFFALO INC.), a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), or the like, or protocols used in encryption key exchange processing using WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), WPA2, or the like which is performed for encryption communication using a dynamic encryption key. However, work for setting an access point-station relationship as described above can be troublesome to a user, and can be difficult for a novice user.